Airway pressure therapy has been employed for many years to treat patients experiencing respiratory difficulties due to a number of reasons. Airway pressure therapy involves creating or generating a positive airway pressure at a nasal airway pressure system that is delivered to a patient through a patient nasal interface, which interfaces directly or indirectly with the patient's nasal airway via the patient's nostrils.
One example of respiratory difficulties is an infant with under-developed lungs, especially in the case of a premature infant or a neonate. The airway pressure therapy prevents the infant's lungs from collapsing during exhalation and assists in lung expansion during inhalation.
Another example of respiratory difficulties is an individual that has sleep apnea that causes a portion of their air way passage to intermittently collapse while they are sleeping. The airway pressure therapy can be used to prevent the air way passage from collapsing.
There are different types of nasal airway pressure systems. One is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) that generates continuous positive airway pressure for the patient. A CPAP that is used with a nasal interface is referred to as a nasal CPAP (nCPAP). Other examples of airway pressure systems include fixed flow, ventilator type systems and variable flow systems.
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